Last week, we experimented with perspective when we played a game with our trucks and post it notes; we held them close to the camera and far away. Today, we were experimenting with moving our bodies around to find different ways to view our room, chairs, and even how we can see each other on the screen (are you bigger or smaller now?). What does perspective mean [to you]? Do you have any ideas about that word? - Elyse “That is something that is little and when we move it closer to our face it gets bigger.” - Saul, 3.6 years
What does the room look like from your back?
Does your room look different? - Elyse “Yeah!” - Saul And tell me, does it look the same or does it look different if you’re in this kind of position instead of sitting up? - Elyse “Yes.” - Giacomo What’s different about the room? - Elyse “Well basically when you stand up and put your head up it gets bigger. But when you lay down like I am, it gets smaller.” - Giacomo, 4.2 years
Using the chairI was wondering if we could use something that we all have and look at it from all different perspectives. Maybe another word is we can look at it from different points of view. - Elyse Saul, I notice you're behind your chair. What do you notice about your chair when you’re behind it? - Elyse “When you’re behind it you see from behind and you don’t see yourself. You want me to show you something cool?” - Saul [climbs into chair]
From behind:
I can’t see the back of my chair. Where do I have to move to see it? - Elyse “You have to go behind it.” - Giacomo, 4.2 years “It’s difficult when we move away. When we don’t move away, it’s not difficult.” - Saul, 3.6 years Is there somewhere that I can stand to see the front and the back of the chair at the same time? - Elyse [Saul runs to the back of his chair. Then he runs to the front and back and front then back again] If you’re behind it can you see the front too? - Elyse “Yeah! Front and back!” - Saul [Giacomo gets up to look through the back of his chair] From above:
From underneath:
A whole new perspective
Testing out our flashlights
Making shadows bigger and smaller“So Elyse, do you see that my bathroom is dark? If I turn this light on, it’s a little bit [more] light, and you can see something. It’s almost like a shadow. The further you get, the bigger it is.” - Giacomo [moving away from wall, but closer to the light source] “So, the closer to you get, the smaller it is. The more backwards you go, the bigger it gets. It’s humongous.” - Giacomo “Humungous.” - Saul “The closer my shadow gets, the smaller it is.The more backwards I go, it’s bigger.” - Giacomo When you get further away from the light, your shadow gets bigger? “It doesn’t just absorb my shadow, it can also absorb other shadows.” - Giacomo [holding tissue]
 We each used our own objects to test out how movement changes the size of the shadow.
Revisiting Mary PoppinsWe revisited a book that we read quite a bit in the fall. This Mary Poppins book is full of beautiful silhouettes that are part of the illustrations/artwork of the book. This time, we used a flashlight to really emphasize the shadows that they make as you turn the pages.
There are quite a few friends we haven't seen in a few weeks, or even months. Today, we took some time to create message for some of these children so that they would know we were thinking about them.
"We have a big, big mess here. We're only working with the mess to make messages for all the kids that don't have messages." - Saul, 3.6 years
"Elle. That's my friend from Benton Street. Her house is not very far away. It's next to mine. Maybe I can flip it upside down and tape it up, then wrap it up [to deliver it]. I can walk it to her house." - Remy, 3.4 years
Sleeping Bunnies 1. Messages who play when the wake up. 2. Unicorns who sleep standing up, and jump when they wake up. 3. Forklifts who lift (heavy things) when they wake up. 4. Chickens who cluck when they wake up.  Being silly together- Sticker mustaches
“I can see it really well.” - C.C., 4.4 years Today we were experimenting with a variety of drawing tools and surfaces. Would there be some that did not work well together? Would you be able to see the marks on each surface? What are the best combinations? How does the same tool work with two or three different surfaces (e.g. highlighter with paper, cardboard, or bubble wrap).
“Why is It called a highlighter?” - Giacomo, 4.2 years
I’m going to use my pen, and I’m going to write your name on my paper. Do you see it says, ‘Giacomo’? “Yeah.” - Giacomo If I want to highlight, or maybe another word is ‘spotlight’ the ‘G’…can you see that if I draw over it, it spotlights it?
“It’s a race car.” - C.C.
“It’s a race car.” - CC “I want to color it in.” - CC “Because wheels are actually black for real. An the blue stuff is the windows. This triangle is a house. I thinked about it.” - CC
“What else will work? Hmmm…I’m thinking about it.” - Saul, 3.6 years
 Saul, what if we try our pencil and colored pencil on the cardboard because it didn’t work on the bubble wrap. - Elyse “Why did it not work?” - Saul “Well, let me tell you. The bubble wrap, when the bubble wrap is smashed, you can’t use it. So, if the bubble wrap has a mixture inside of it, the bumps, when it goes over, they pop. But also, it, the one that popped, made a mixture.“ - Giacomo I did find that the pencils popped the bubbles. - Elyse “It’s supposed to do that.” - Giacomo
A Whiteboard“It’s called a whiteboard, and it’s not normal paper. Look, it’s not cracking.” - Giacomo
It looks like Giacomo has a different type of surface. - Elyse “It’s not normal paper, but when you use this on it, it makes color.” - Giacomo “And when you use this and put it on [cap to dry erase marker that has eraser], it disappears. When I draw it, but then put this on, it disappears.” - Giacomo It’s similar to what CC and I were experimenting with. - Elyse “It’s called a whiteboard, and it’s not normal paper. Look, it’s not cracking.” - Giacomo If I wanted to draw something and keep it for a very long time, would you recommend using the whiteboard or something different? [long pause to think] If I want to keep the drawing, should I use a whiteboard or a piece of paper? “Paper.” - CC Why do you think paper would be better? Maybe a different question is, if I draw on a white board, is it permanent? Is my drawing permanent? “No it’s not!” - CC "You can erase it." - Emery (C.C.'s big sister) Can I erase it from my paper? - Elyse “No.” - CC What if I draw it with my pencil? - Elyse “Yes.” - CC Can erase the highlighter? - Elyse “No. No.” - CC “I think you can.” - Giacomo I’m trying so hard, but it’s not working. - Elyse
Force
Giacomo used his trucks/cars, magnates, and the slope of his couch as part of an experiment: “Saul, this is what happens. First, it’s slow. Then, when it’s on this slide, it goes fast. This slide is steep and you can fall down. Like if you’re on top of a hill, you can roll down it. This [edge of couch] is a little bit like a hill. So you could just rollll down it.” - Giacomo “I made a magnatile ball and the car was behind it. And it moved. When the car moved here, it goes down really fast.” - Giacomo Would you magnates have moved without the car? Would they move by themselves? - Elyse “No.” Giacomo They’re not moving. What do you need to make them move? - Elyse “Part fast, part wheels.” - Giacomo Do the wheels move by themselves? - Elyse “No, only things with motors can do it. Only toys with motors can do it.” - Giacomo I noticed that you were able to make the wheels move, are you the motor? -Elyse “No.” - Saul Saul, if the car doesn’t have a motor, how can it move? How did he make it move? - Elyse Maybe a better question is, ‘What makes your trucks move?’ - Elyse “Nothing!” - Saul Does your tow truck move by itself? -Elyse “Nothing better than my crayons.” - Saul PerspectiveYou have the same tow truck. - Elyse “Yeah.” - Giacomo “Mine is still bigger than Giacomo’s.” - Saul You think so? I was thinking that they might be the same. - Elyse “It makes noise.” - Giacomo “Mine is easier to make noise. Mine’s easier does it.” - Saul “It just makes the same noise.” - Giacomo
“Mine’s is easier and bigger than Giacomo. His is smaller. It doesn’t mean that he has the same truck.” - Saul I wonder if Giacomo’s looks smaller because he is sitting further away from the camera. Giacomo, if you bring your truck closer to the iPad, does it look bigger? - Elyse [Giacomo brings it closer] What do you think, Saul? -Elyse “Mine is easier the big one than his.” - Saul
Now I can hide behind it. Back here I can’t hide; your can’t see my face. If I bring it closer to the camera, you can’t see my face anymore. - Elyse Giacomo seemed to find this funny as he chuckled when I hid my face! But it’s the same stack of sticky notes, I didn’t change it. Just as it moves closer, it appears to get bigger. - Elyse Magnets
Freeze
Next week
Instead of reading books today during story time, I invited the Saul and Giacomo to help me tell our own story. I had chosen a photo of Loch Ness in Scotland and a book from MOMA in NYC titled, Places. We had images to help spark our imagination for our characters and what they might do in these locations. Loch Ness was chosen based on previous conversations and interest about the Loch Ness monster and other creatures. I did not tell them it was Loch Ness until later in the call.  What do you notice about it? “It looks kind of like the Loch Ness Lake because Loch Ness lake is big and wide.” - Giacomo, 4.2 years Who do you think would live in this lake? - Elyse “The Loch Ness monster of course.” - Giacomo, 4.2 years Saully, who else could live in this lake? - Elyse “With the monsters?” - Saul. 3.6 years “Some more monsters like a whale monster. That could be the monster world.” -Giacomo So, if we told a story that took place in this lake, it would be the monster world lake? [...] and one of our characters could be Nessie [Giacomo had just referred to the monster by this name], the Loch Ness monster who lives in the lake. Who would live in the castle? “A king and queen of course.” - Giacomo “My characters will be a big piece of pie that will go to get you trucks by the old trucks.” - Saul “No, it can’t be like that. Wait, what did he say?” - Giacomo Do you see this bridge? Could this be a road for the trucks? “No.” - Saul “If that’s the Loch Ness world, there has to be some monsters in that castle because only monsters live in the loch ness world. All of the people are monsters. That’s the point.” - Giacomo One of the important part of telling a story is knowing who our characters are: who the people, or animals, or creatures in the story are. I know that you both have great imaginations. What if we told our own story about the Loch Ness monster or any monsters that could live in this castle. - Elyse “And that huge lake.” - Giacomo What would they do if they lived in this photograph? What would they do all day? - Elyse “What if they live with the cows?” - Saul Oh, maybe there are cows here. We can’t see them, but we can pretend that they’re there. - Elyse “No, there can’t be cows because if that’s the monster world, then the cows are monsters.” - Giacomo Because we’re making up the story, our monster world can have anything we want it to have. - Elyse Sometimes we start fairy tales with “Once upon a time”. What if we start with, “Once upon a time there was the Loch Ness Monster, some other monsters, and some cows, and they lived in a castle near the lake. What would we say next? What is the next part of our story? “The truck will come pick them up and bring them down.” - Saul “Broke down the other monsters and cows.” - Saul Why would he do that? - Elyse “Because he did’t want the monsters and cows to eat the truck so he broke them down.” - Saul “Basically, they couldn’t have been cows because they weren’t invented then.” _ Giacomo We can create any story we want to tell. It does’t have to be real. We can use our imaginations. “At least my thinking is that cows shouldn’t be there. Cows are usually in farms, and they can’t be out in the nature because they don’t put them in things and stuff. You don’t just capture them at once. You just say to the cow to come, but they only say to come at farms. Because if they were there in the Loch Ness world, they couldn’t be real. THe Loch Ness world lived before the human world, and there was only cows who were actually monsters.The whole earth, all the people on their earth were monsters.” - Giacomo
“I’m making a park!” - Saul, 3.6 years On Friday, Saul and Audrey each had the idea to create a playground for their collaged creatures/monsters. Saul used images of lollipops to collage a lollipop playground, while Audrey used paper strips to create (paper bridge) slides for her monster Kiki and it's lovie. Remembering that we have a lot of knowledge about paper, we decided to create paper sculpture playgrounds. We were able to draw on our past paper explorations, the techniques that Maren shared with us, and, of course, our imaginations.
What did we bring? What is our plan?
Revisiting and sharing our paper knowledge“I need this to stand up.” - Giacomo
“A curl!” - Saul, 3.6 years You can also curl your paper if you need any sort of loops or twists. - Elyse “Curl? Can you add it to mine?” - Saul I can’t add it to yours, but you can make one. “I’m going to curl one too. See? Curling." - Saul We can work together. - Naama {offering to hold the pencil for Saul] “That’s good.” - Saul Are you working together with Ima? It looks like Giacomo is working with his mommy too. - Elyse The parents have been the best partners in our virtual classroom. Everything that we do is possible due to collaboration with our parents. Here, Saul and Giacomo were both working with their moms to develop their ideas and accomplish their end goal/idea (e.g. curls). With Naama's help [scaffolding], Saul was able to create a few curls. A few minutes later, he picked up the pencil and resumed his work without any assistance (final photo on bottom right). “I’m making another one. It becomes a little curl. I made a curl! I’m going to use them for Gecko. Gecko the frog is going to jump into the park and walk, walk, walk, walk. You see. He’s happy because he has a nice big park, and he likes to hop in it.” - Saul “Well, I just crumpled some paper [...]." - Giacomo, 4.2 years
Saul's Park
Documenting Saul's work from homeGiacomo's Playground“Mommy, I’m making a playground for Gecko (points to Saul on screen). It’s silly. At night he kind of hides. Maybe he’s just hungry. And in a few days I get him.” - Giacomo
Sharing across the screens and playing gamesDistance and communicating over zoom does not alter our desire to be with each other and share our work. Saul and Giacomo seem to connect well despite our distance.
 “You want to play hide-n-seek with me now?” - Saul We can try. How can we do it over zoom? How can we play hide-n-seek? - Elyse “No, we need to find Gecko! Ready? Go! Find Gecko.” - Saul I cover my eyes and count. Ready or not Gecko, here we come! Is he in the tunnel? - Elyse “No! I found him!” - Saul “Wanna do it again? 1..2…3… [counted to 11].” - Saul Ready or not Gecko, here Saully comes! - Elyse “Can you find him?” - Saul Hmm… is he on your playground or Ima’s playground? - Elyse “Ima’s playground!” - Saul So he’s on Ima’s. I don’t think I’ve seen Ima’s playground yet, so I don’t know where to look. - Elyse “He’s hiding in his place. Under here. That is Gecko’s hiding place. He’s watching TV.” - Saul No way! There’s a TV on your playground? - Elyse “No, but there’s a TV on Ima’s playground! He’s watching it because he does’t want to be on his own.” - Saul A few more process photos“I’m so glad that I made that creation.” - Saul, 3.6 years
Saul's Process and CollageEach of us came to the call with a different type of creature in mind and different materials. Saul had images from magazines, paper, glue sticks, and some drawing tools. Saul has a strong interest in trucks, and his creature was a "truck dog" image that he found. He built his collage around this image, and then decided that his work was going to be a gift. “I’m making a puzzle. I found a nice green balloon like this, and I wonder if it needs to have some glue. I’m making a puzzle of trucks. I saw a truck dog.” - Saul “I found it. It’s a truck dog.” - Saul I wonder if you could think about where the truck dog would live and add some pieces for his home. - Elyse “No, he drives. I’m going to glue him.” - Saul Where do you think they might live? - Elyse “They might live on the road because that’s where they drive.” - Saul “I can arrange the lollipops for my dog. Yum, yum, yum.” - Saul Maybe a lollipop playground. - Naama “I’m putting all of the lollipops here. It’s a creation. This is a nice creation I made.” - Saul
Audrey's process and creatures
A playground for Kiki and his lovie - We'll expand on this next week!
“Maybe we need to make a playground for him. Where’s my paper? That’s part of his playground thing.” - Audrey How would you make a slide? - Sarah “Now we need to double. One [paper bridge as a slide] needs to go on top. So his lovie can go on one. He has a special thing on his lovie to make it walk and talk by itself.” - Audrey Where did Kiki go? - Sarah “Kikiiiiiiii?”- Audrey Tegan come. “You can be Kiki’s friend.” - Audrey Sharing ideas!Now i’m going to think about the images I cut out for where he might live. I have trees or mountains. - Elyse “Or he could live in the jungle!” - Saul I could create a jungle. I have different types of trees and plants. - Elyse “You could create a jungle for him where he could walk and see bubbles. Those are always nice things.” - Saul Bubbles like this? - Elyse [holds up image] “Yeah, these are bubbles.” - Saul I’m going to move him around and create a jungle for him. - Elyse “He might have a big jungle.” - Saul “What did you make?” - Saul Would you like to see? This is what I have so far. - Elyse “Is that a jungle for him?” - Saul You guys suggested a jungle, so I had some trees and some other plants. And then I brought two choices for his friend. A unicorn friend or an ostrich friend. - Elyse “I’d like to see the unicorn friend.” - Saul “Unicorn.” - Audrey Tegan and Audrey shared some images via Seesaw |
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